Page 28 of Wired Target

But that person wasn’t Pim Wat.

The shoe prints were too big, and Pim Wat had never been a smoker.“Filthy habit,” she’d said when she’d caught Sophie as a teen with a cigarette.Her delicate nostrils had flared with contempt.“Ages the skin like nothing else.”

“And heaven knows you’d never do anything to age your skin, Mother,” Sophie muttered.She squatted and reassembled her phone.She took photos of the cigarettein situ, the shoe prints, and the indentations from the stool.She set a GPS pin in the location and sent all the info via text to Lei, with a message:

“I found where the drone operator sat.I’m sorry, but for safety reasons I must get myself home ASAP.The drone operator was not my mother, the key thing I wanted to rule out—but that doesn’t mean this attack wasn’t related to my problems with her.I beg that you keep this part of the investigation quiet for a little longer and let me and my team try to find the perp behind the attack with all the resources we can bring to bear.”

Lei was not going to be happy.This action might even cost Sophie Lei’s friendship, but this was the best she could do to avoid the risk of getting caught up in their investigation and detained on Maui indefinitely.

Sophie straightened up, taking a last look around that included a regretful scan of the albatross sanctuary where Lei and Torufu were no doubt dealing with the drone.

Sophie jogged along a faint trail in the direction of the road, the phone to her ear as she called for her own backup in the form of the Security Solutions jet.When transport was on its way, she took the phone apart again even as it lit up with messages from Lei.

She couldn’t afford to regret her choices.She had to survive to protect her family.Once she’d guaranteed that, she’d turn her attention to neutralizing Pim Wat.

Lei would forgive her for all that had gone down today, or she would not.

Two hours later, the Security Solutions jet took off with Sophie and Lono Jones sitting side by side in the leather seats.“I hope you know what you’re doing,” Jones said, eyes on the closed cockpit door as g-forces pushed them back into their cushy leather seats.“You burned a lot of folks at MPD today by taking off like this, especially if the victim dies.”

Sophie folded her lips tightly over any response; there was nothing to say, because Jones was correct.She stared out the window at the lush green jungle of Haiku below them, the turquoise sea trimmed in lacy foam and yellow beach, the vast purplish bulk of Haleakala volcano wreathed in clouds.

When would she see this jewel of an island again?

Her heart hurt at the thought of losing Lei’s friendship—but she had to get home to her babies and make sure they were safe.

The jet curved north toward Oahu; they’d be on the ground soon.

Jones cleared his throat.“There are probably a bunch of calls you should make.”

Sophie roused herself from the morass of regret and second-guessing with difficulty; the talons of depression already had a grip on her brain, and thinking had become difficult.

That, or she was dehydrated from running for miles from the albatross sanctuary to the Kahului airport downtown without hydration.“Got any water?”

“I’m sure there’s something around.”Jones tossed aside his seat belt and rose to rustle around in the plane’s galley—they’d taken off too quickly to have any crew on board but the pilot and Jones himself.He returned with two plastic bottles of water.“You look done in.”

“I am.”Sophie unscrewed the water bottles and applied herself to drinking one of them to the bottom.She set it aside when empty.Her stomach swishing uncomfortably with liquid, she extended a hand.“I asked you to bring me a new phone.”

“I stopped at the drugstore on the way to the airport in Honolulu to buy you a burner.It’s nothing fancy but it will do for now.I already programmed in a bunch of your important numbers.”

Sophie met his hazel gaze with gratitude.“Thank you, Lono.This helps a lot.Can I get a bit of privacy for a phone call?”

“Sure.I’ll go kick back in the bedroom.Keep an eye on the clock, though—it’s only a half-hour flight.”

“Duly noted.”

Sophie waited until Jones disappeared into the jet’s bedroom.She drank the second bottle of water, then opened the phone and typed in Connor’s number from memory.

18

Connor sat at his bank of computer monitors, attending to administration for the Yam Khûmk?n.The ancient organization had its fingers in a surprising number of lucrative businesses and keeping it all going took time and effort.Though he’d found a measure of freedom from his responsibilities as the Master within the immediate walls of the fortress by delegating leadership to the diverse heads of different disciplines, he was still the functional CEO, and that position took more time, effort and planning than he’d been aware of when he stepped into the former Master’s shoes.

Connor’s private cell phone rang.A surge of emotion flooded his system when he saw the name in the little LED window.

“Sophie!”Surprise, delight, and a fillip of apprehension filled him as Connor picked up the call from his faraway girlfriend.“How’s everything on Oahu?”

“I’ve been on Maui for a case, and—everything has gone to Hades in a wheelbarrow.”

“You mean—hell in a handbasket?What’s going on?”It had been ages since Sophie misused an American idiom.Her voice sounded hoarse, exhausted.

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